On this episode of Tosche Station Radio, the hosts are joined by staff writer Bria for a discussion of diversity in Star Wars, a review of Crucible, and ask where the Expanded Universe should go from here.
Kicking off the show, the hosts highlight what’s New on the Blog. Bria addressed the lack of diversity in Star Wars. Crucible released, and there was lots of discussion. First there was our new non-spoiler Go/No-go feature, Brian’s review, and finally Bria’s review. Nanci reviewed Overdraft: The Orion Offensive by John Jackson Miller. Finally, the inevitable happened. We have a Tumblr! Sign up there for our usual brand of fandom inanity in convenient, bite-sized morsels.
In Fixer’s Flash, Nanci’s been busy reading Overdraft: The Orion Offensive and an ARC of Kenobi by John Jackson Miller. She’s also working on some original fiction and somewhere in there, found the time to sell a short story. Brian also finished Kenobi and started watching Arrested Development. Only a few years too late to save it. Bria rewatched Dollhouse and picked up a new show to throw on her fandom plate, Hannibal.
Deak’s Dirt starts with more Disney Parks rumors. Will it be the largest ever? The Orlando Business Journal says yes. Paul S. Kemp says his duology is “on standby”, cites Disney and the Sequel Trilogy being the cause. Empire and Rebellion: Razor’s Edge by Martha Wells gets a blurb. Nanci gives a dramatic reading. Bria might be a tad excited for this. Disney is planning a large Star Wars presence at D23 expo. Also, Comic Con (July 18-21) and CE2 (July 26-28) are coming up! Let’s home for some exciting news. In release news, out now is William Shakespeare’s Star Wars. Get thee to a bookstore!
On this week’s Camie’s Concerns, it’s a spoiler-filled review of the latest Expanded Universe release: Crucible by Troy Denning. How did the bookend for three of the most important characters in the Saga fare? From there, the hosts segue into discussing just where the EU needs to go from here and what the Sequel Trilogy means for it.
Tosche Station Radio is the official podcast of Tosche-Station.net and a part of Majestic Giraffe Productions. If you like what you hear, please leave a review on the iTunes Music Store. We can also be found on Facebook and Twitter.
Nanci and Brian are the co-founders and writers of Tosche-Station.net. You can find Nanci on Twitter with the handle @Nancipants and you can find Brian with @LaneWinree.
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What you guys need to understand about Luke and Leia is that they are supposed to be all poweful.George Lucas said Luke would become 200% more poweful then Sidious and Vader.
And when we know how powerful Yoda was that means alot.Other then that i agree on alot of your points.Book should have been more about the big 3 having fun on a advanture.
They can be powerful, but they can’t be so powerful that it completely destroys the narrative. That’s what happened in this book.
That would invalidate them as characters,thats like Superman taking the buss to stop crime, just doesnt work, a hero struggling works with John Mclane in die hard 1, not for the most powerful jedi of all time,Luke struggle wshould be with emotions and whats going on around him with family etc.Luke used to be a normal hero in ep V-VI, this is 40 years after,now its time for the younger generation to struggle more before they become all powerful like Jaina and Ben will be later.
Let’s put it this way, if you write them so powerfully that the only way to introduce tension and a sense of danger into the narrative is to repeatedly cripple, maim, and dismember them, you need to figure out another way to demonstrate they’re powerful.
Yeah, same with Fate of the jedi, Luke was almost dead everytime he hadd to fight mortals and he could still take on multiple sith and winn.Anyways really nice what you said about Kenobi, so looking forword to that one.
Great show guys, required listening for anyone who cares about the EU books (and should be required for Del Rey itself).
It really is the best and worst of times. In some sense, it’s been a golden age of SW books recently and I believe the quality and continuity is a great accomplishment for a sci-fi series. Think about the releases over the last two years or so spanning like 30,000 years of universe history: Scoundrels, Dawn of the Jedi: Into the Void, Knight Errant, The Old Republic: Deceived, Choices of One, Riptide, Revan (well, at least I enjoyed the first 98% of that book), Scourge, and Darth Plagueis. And Kenobi is on the way and that’s not including some amazing comics. All great, entertaining books that we would all enjoy rereading and books that really continue to enjoyably build the universe. As Brian said, these are titles that make the movies and the entire franchise better.
Then there’s everything written regarding the big three post NJO, and anything with a character named Jax in it (I thought that “The Last Jedi” was every bit as bad as “Crucible” with many trends and author choices just as disturbing as that title). Some real terrible, really troubling entries. Again, I have to wonder what is going on within Del Rey to lead to choices that are so good and so bad simultaneously. Anyone with any insights? These kinds of successes and failures don’t happen by accident.
It’s gotten to the point now where I’m now down with Episode VII essentially making no mention of the established post NJO EU, save for broad strokes (the big three and nods to their established kids). Open-movie crawl, introduce everybody, get the adventure underway, no large universe explanation…
Oh, by the way, I think you can definitely write all powerful characters who have very real flaws that put them in very real jeopardy. Characters are still human (or still alien) and they can make choices or decisions that, no matter how powerful, but them at risk. Great authors can manage that.
It’s definitely possible, but when it comes to an author like Denning I’d just prefer he scale things back because his only method to create any sort of real danger is crippling characters in some pretty awful ways. Repeatedly. It’s the only trick he has in his bag and that’s a problem.
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